Battle of Merseburg
The Battle of Merseburg occurred on 2 November 1340 when the forces of King John the Blind of Bohemia defeated Emperor Louis IV's imperial army at Merseburg on the Saale River of Saxony-Anhalt. The Bohemian army, consisting almost entirely of mercenaries, overwhelmed the numerically-inferior imperial army, allowing for the Bohemians to gain the upper hand in their rebellion against Emperor Louis. On 4 January 1341, John was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire at Aachen Cathedral. Background John of Bohemia, who was crowned in 1310, was an ambitious leader. He was the only son of Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor, and he used his connections with the empire to allow him to defeat Henry of Bohemia in 1310 and take the crown of Bohemia for himself. In 1314, he was disappointed when Louis IV of Wittelsbach was elected to succeed his father as emperor on his death, but John became one of the seven prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire and supported Louis in his rivalry with Frederick the Fair, culminating in the 1322 Battle of Muhldorf. John embarked on campaigns away from Bohemia, where he was disliked by the population, and he lost his eyesight while crusading in Lithuania in 1336. However, he would not let this incident end his ambition. In 1338, he began plotting the assassination of Emperor Louis IV in a gambit to seize power for himself, as he had a strong claim on the crown due to his father. On 3 November 1339, he declared war on Emperor Louis IV and set out with a mercenary army to conquer Germany from his forces. From 1339 to 1340, the Bohemian army ravaged the eastern German countryside, crushing a series of castles and imperial forces along the way. However, the Bohemians suffered a large defeat earlier in 1340 as their army ran low on men, with the imperial army acquiring more and more levies with which they could fight against the smaller Bohemian army. King John decided to remedy this by recruiting a large army of mercenaries, and this 23,779-strong formation marched into battle with Prince Mayor Adolf of the Hansa's 14,782-strong imperial army at Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt on 2 November 1340. Battle The mercenary army consisted mostly of heavy infantry wielding swords and shields, with 4,600 archers and 600 cavalry accompanying the main body of infantry. Meanwhile, the Imperial army had almost 3,000 cavalry and 2,000 archers, outnumbering the auxiliaries of the Bohemian army. This frustrated King John, who had to go on the offensive if he wished to bring the Imperials to battle. The blind king John led his soldiers into battle in a brave charge, trouncing the Imperial army against all odds. The brave Bohemians were able to destroy the Imperial army in a shocking victory, with half of the Imperial army being lost. The battle forced the Imperial army to retreat throughout eastern Germany as the Bohemian army recaptured the land that it had lost to an Imperial counterattack, and it would not be long before the Holy Roman Empire would be ruled by a Bohemian king. On 4 January 1341, Emperor Louis IV surrendered, being imprisoned in Emperor John's dungeons in Prague. Aftermath The Battle of Merseburg restored the House of Luxembourg to power in the Holy Roman Empire, and John would ultimately decide to release Emperor Louis, who was know left with only the Duchy of Bavaria. Louis would be promoted to Viceroy of Bavaria under John, who granted his son Wenzel the Viceroyalty of Bohemia. The lords of the Holy Roman Empire would soon nominate Wenzel as the heir to the empire, after John endorsed him, and John would die of complications from being blinded on 29 October 1342, leading to Wenzel becoming the new emperor as "Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor". Category:Battles